'Love Games' -- Movie Review

Though the film has good production values, by the end of the first half, you can easily predict what is going to unfold on screen. Wonders don’t cease to surface in the second half. What the film lacks is the thrills and spills in the game

They are friends with benefits. Their world revolves around partying and clinking glasses to ensnare a potential victim. Their looks don’t kill, so they do.

Writer-director Vikram Bhatt pens a world where lust, sex, drugs, partner swapping, extra marital relations is part and parcel of everyday life. People are willing to bed anyone who catches their fancy. No strings attached.

Tara Alisha and Gaurav Arora in still from 'Love Games'

For Ramona (Patralekhaa) and Sam (Gaurav Arora), it is merely a game where each one has to outdo the other to emerge victorious until he falls in love with one of his victims, Alisha (Tara Alisha Berry). For a certain section of the audience, the film might be too bold and even come as a shocker that such stuff happens. As they say, those who know, know and those who don’t, don’t.

Considering that making films autobiographical is a speciality of the Bhatts, Vikram has drawn inferences from people around. Sam’s character owns an in-flight catering business — one of Vikram’s former lover’s exes was in the same business. But that’s where it ends as the director takes recourse to sketching typical characters who have come from broken homes and abusive relationships. That is the only reason they are playing the game. Though the film has good production values, by the end of the first half, you can easily predict what is going to unfold on screen. Wonders don’t cease to surface in the second half. What the film lacks is the thrills and spills in the game.

After her rustic act in 'CityLights' (2014), Patralekhaa tries hard to be convincing as the femme fatale. At several points, her dialogue delivery fails her. Somewhere down the line, she also mouths, “I do not know Shakespeare’s English” so as to justify her bad delivery. Tara, who was seen in 'Mastram' (2013) and 'A Perfect Girl' (2015), shows promise. As does newcomer Gaurav, but he needs a bit of polishing.

So, the question arises: Will you partake in Love Games? Play it at your own risk.